Nightly News   |  May 24, 2012

Rising U.S.-Pakistan tension

Pakistan’s decision to convict a doctor who helped the U.S. track down Osama bin Laden was met with outrage in the U.S. NBC’s Andrea Mitchell reports.

Share This:

This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>> overseas, tensions are at a key breaking point with a key american alli oont. pakistan , a big reason for this is as we reported here last night, pakistan is severely punishing the doctor who helped the u.s. hunt down osama bein lad laden. our chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell has more.

>> jail, sent to prison for 33 years for treason. this pakistani doctor who secretly helped the u.s. hunt down osama bin laden . in america, he would be celebrated as a hero.

>> his help, after all, was instrumental in taking down one of the world's most notorious murders.

>> to somehow allege under any country's law that this doctor violated any law is of course just beyond ludacris. it's outrageous.

>> the doctor working for the cia collected dna samples from the aboughtaubottabad house. but according to the leader of the ruling party , the president's son even though his own son, benazir bhutto was killed by al qaeda .

>> unfortunately, andrea, anyone collaborating with foreign intelligence , even with a friendly country anywhere in the world, that's a crime.

>> even worse to the u.s., pakistan has yet to explain how bin laden managed to hide in plain sight for years.

>> to find that the pakistanis aren't trying to answer the question, who was hiding osama bin laden , but who helped us find him, and that's outrageous.

>> plus, pakistan has cut supply lines to u.s. forces in afghanistan. retaliating after the u.s. refused to apologize for killing 24 pakistani soldiers in a border raid last your. pakistan is also angry about drone attacks, including another today that killed eight suspected militants. intelligence officials say relations with pakistan have nen been worse. but they're building more nukeilous bombs than anywhere else in the world.

>> andrea mitchell , thanks.